Sending to Japan: Perspective of a Sending Church Pastor

Jordan grew up in a Christian home. As far back as he can remember, he was involved with a church, from Sunday school, to church retreats, to youth groups, to Bible studies, and beyond. He was taught doctrine and studied theology. But he never read the Bible. So, when he approached his late teens, he began to struggle in his own Christian walk. Devotions were infrequent. Prayer was nonexistent. Evangelism was hard. Church attendance was occasional. Temptations were overwhelming.

The problem was not that Jordan did not want to be faithful. He simply did not know how to be faithful. Pastors told him to read his Bible but never taught him what to do (Ps 1:2). Mentors told him to pray without ceasing but never gave him guidance (1 Thess 5:17). Church leaders told him to evangelize but never trained him to share the gospel (Matt 28:18-20; Rom 10:17). Fellow Christians told him to come to church but never told him why (Heb 10:25). When he faced temptation, no one held him accountable (Jas 5:16). Jordan’s church produced a convert, not a disciple.

Eventually, in college, Jordan started attending the midweek meeting of a campus ministry. He made friends. He joined a Bible study. A leader encouraged him to participate in a summer project and, while away that summer, he decided he wanted to be a missionary!

His friends thought it was a great idea. His campus leaders wanted him to go. But the pastor of the local church he occasionally attended near the college wouldn’t complete the reference form for him. Why? Because Jordan wasn’t a faithful member of a local church.

Was the pastor right? Don’t the nations need missionaries? Isn’t the church supposed to send missionaries because the fields are white for harvest? Well, the church is supposed to send missionaries. The nations do need missionaries. And . . . the pastor was right!

The pastor knew healthy churches produce disciples of Jesus, and by God’s grace healthy churches produce missionaries, but it takes time. More time than many want to give. More time than we feel that we have. But the urgency of the mission cannot outweigh preparation for the mission.

The Tiptons and Japan

Contrast this story of Jordan with the story of another couple I know: Stephen and Alexandra. Our church had the privilege of sending them to serve the church in Japan. This couple was eager to share the gospel in Japan, and our church was eager to send them. But we took our time.

We were as hungry for the gospel to spread over there as they were. However, we want the gospel to take root and bear lasting fruit through the work of healthy local churches for generations to come. So, we chose to slow the process down. Specifically, we wanted to observe them, train them, and affirm them so that we could finally send them and support them.

Observe

Stephen and Alexandra’s extraordinary giftedness isn’t what prepared them for Japan. They prepared themselves by investing in their local church, which is God’s program to train God’s people to take God’s word to God’s world. We observed their desire to go to Japan over several years. Over time, that desire aligned with their love for the local church, for God’s word, and for God’s world. They were actively involved in our church. They evangelized in the local community and brought those people to church. They sought counsel from the elders and members as they considered relocating to Japan. These observations gave us confidence. They not only understood where they wanted to go but what they wanted to do when they got there: support or plant a local church. 

Train

Stephen, and later Alexandra, expressed a desire to go to Japan while in college at West Chester University. Stephen started regularly attending Christ Church West Chester in 2015, became a member in 2017, became an intern in 2019, became an elder in 2022, and left for Japan in 2023. The fields are white for harvest, but it takes time to raise up and train a missionary. So, we encouraged Stephen to prepare by earning an MDiv and doing an internship as he aspired toward eldership.

Affirm

The aspiration toward eldership became a reality as the Tiptons’ launch approached. The elders invited Stephen to complete our elder questionnaire and sit through an oral interview. After that, we recommended him for congregational affirmation as an elder. We desired to make explicit that a church planting missionary should be elder-qualified. If Stephen wasn’t suitable to be an elder of our church, he wasn’t qualified to plant or pastor a church in Japan as a missionary.

Send

When I say we sent the Tiptons, I do not mean to say that we merely allowed them to go, or even that we encouraged them to go. No, we opened our pocketbooks to get behind them financially. We examined our contacts lists to bring others along to support them. We committed to staying in contact with them relationally. We were in for the long haul.

Support 

But our support for them was not and is not reduced to finances and connections. As the Tiptons left, we formed a care team to support them as they transitioned to Japan. That team was composed of four families who cared for Stephen and Alexandra through discipling, communicating to the elders and the congregation, providing pastoral care, supplying marital support, and offering a maternal influence to Alexandra. Our desire was that each family on the care team would:

• Maintain regular contact with Stephen and Alexandra.
• Pray regularly for Stephen and Alexandra.
• Help us foster ongoing congregational support for Stephen and Alexandra. For example,  keep the care team apprised of ways we can pray for them and serve them so that we can put updates in our church newsletter. We especially want to do this when they’re gone so that they’re not “out of congregational sight, out of congregational mind.”
• Offer counsel to them.

We encouraged each care team family to maintain some level of friendship with the Tiptons. Further, we agreed to cooperate with each other in caring for and supporting them. So we talked to each other about the Tiptons, not in gossipy ways, but in order to provide the best support.

The care team naturally dissolved as the Tiptons joined Logos Community Church in Nagoya. After that, our care for them evolved to semi-regular video calls with a pastor from our church and a visit from my wife and me in 2024.

From all of this, I hope you realize that sending a missionary to Japan is hard work. It takes time. It takes financial and relational resources. And the support for them is ongoing. But the urgency of the mission should never replace preparation for the mission. In fact, the mission’s urgency demands our patience as well as our ongoing care and support.